Family says bull mastiff wouldn’t stop, even after being stabbed

A Plymouth woman said a bull mastiff continued to attack her cocker spaniel, even after being stabbed in the side with a kitchen knife.

Don Conkey

A Plymouth woman said her family was forced to stab a dog with a kitchen knife to try to get it to let go of one of their dogs.

Pamela Bonito of 15 Seneca Lane said a bull mastiff continued to hold the family cocker spaniel, Winnie, in its jaws even after being stabbed in the side. It let go after a few minutes, she said.

Bonito’s 21-year-old daughter, Ashley, was in front of their house at about 5:30 p.m. Sunday, walking their cocker spaniel and pug, when a teenage girl and her mother walked by with a bull mastiff on a leash.

“Their dog started to come out of its collar, and first grabbed at my pug, and my daughter went over and kicked the dog, and it released the pug,” Bonito said. “Then the dog went after my cocker spaniel.”

“It put its mouth around her neck, and would not let go,” Bonito said. “My dog was screeching and screeching.”

Bonito said her brother, Matt Dolan, heard the commotion and came out of the house to help.

“We were punching the dog, and the other girl is on top of her dog, trying to pull her dog off,” Bonito said. “We got to the point where we realized he was not going to stop until our dog was dead.”

‘The only thing I could think of to do was go in and grab a knife. I came running down and handed it to my brother, Matt. He took the steak knife and put it into the side of the dog, under the ribcage. And the dog did not flinch, or budge,” she said.

The handle fell off the knife, with the blade still inside the dog, she said. “And after a couple of minutes, it released,” she said.

Bonito said today that the two women with the bull mastiff were angry and said the Plymouth family would pay “for stabbing their dog.”

“I guess the other people were mad that our dogs were not on leashes, but in this neighborhood we always go out with them when we let them out to go to the bathroom, stay with them and bring them right back in,” she said.

Bonito said she took her cocker spaniel to a veterinarian, who cleaned its wounds.